Needing a new Level/Class/Feat system

RobertBenton

I"ve started something rather larger than intended and now find myself in over my head. I've got a homebrew world, homebrew character sheets, and a good sized chunk of homebrew rules. But my players deserve everything I can give them though, right? I've made them custom characters before, but my players still feel a little limited and hate feats. We have all the books and we all tend to spends hours going through the 500+ feats of 3.5e because they want the perfect feat for their character, if not their class. They love the world,which plays like Avatar: the Last Airbender by way of Final Fantasy XII and Zelda. They love the simplified Character Sheets and the open-ended rules, but how can I simplify classes and feats? I've been looking at the Skill Tree System from blizzard( namely WoW's and Diablo's) and the Sphere System from FFX. I want to steer away from flow breakers, and am looking for systems that incorperate skill and ability bonuses. If you have a system that you're working on, or that you perfected that is sort of what I'm looking for I would love to hear from you. I am looking for a way to get away from classes all-together, and prefer point systems, as do my players. Alot of what I have done is inspired by games I have played, so don't be afraid to point me to somewhere you pulled from. I've pulled from MTG, Mass Effect, Diablo II, Hellboy, etc. Even if I don't use your system your way, I may like one or more ideas. Please help, and if I use even a small part of your system, or even change it, I will give you credit.

Postscript: this was already posted under a different title, which may have been misleading.

vstraydogstrutv

Do you have a pdf of your character sheet floating around that you could share? Just to get a better idea of how to further tailor what you're going for in regard to character creation?

I've created my own character sheet for my 3.5 game, but as far as feats and stuff go most of my players are pretty green and stick to the core rulebooks, so I'm lucky in that respect.

If you want to keep classes simple, take a good look at 4.0. WotC really dumbed down character creation. There are definitely things you could pick and choose like a static HP increase, simplified skill check bonuses, shortened skill tree, etc and so on. I use a less powerful version of "healing surges and insight checks":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/shared-creations/wikis/house-rules (as a supplement to a general knowledge roll).

As for the feats, I don't know what to tell you aside from either making them stick to a few select books for feats or nix them all together and replace them with power cards. Of course, the latter choice might be the difference of choosing to play 3.5 vs 4.0.

I also use a homebrew "mana system":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/shared-creations/wikis/mana-system to make spellcasting more interesting (and more powerful, really). You can find those in my Shared Creations campaign below. The campaign also contains a plethora of helpful links for random generators, GM tips, and more. Feel free to favorite it so you can see updates and find it more easily when you need it!

"Shared Creations(Share your links and stories here, please! Help expand this libram of knowledge!)":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shared-creations
"Heurdenvaar(stray's current campaign)":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/heurdenvaar

RobertBenton

Well, I have my Character Sheet and Chi Sheet in MS Paint. Tell me how to post them, and I will. The Chi system for magic I'm using opperates like a dumbed down version of the mana system. The main problem I'm having is something like this:
An assassin has to go out of his way and sink points into a redundant skill of his, or sunk levels into a different class to "Track" a person through a city.
A 12th lvl ranger can't get a good sneak attack bonus on his 1st favored enemy because he hasn't sunk any levels into rouge.
I have one player now that refuses to kill people unless he knows for certain that they're actively mallicious.

I just want to eliminate alot of the BS. Class dependant skills, abilities, and feats are unfair. Things like the Experience Orb system of Fable II or the Chelestial Perk system of Skyrim, seem more open to whatever a player wants to do.

If you have any questions I can clear up, let me know and I'll get you the answers. At least to the best of my ability.

JaymesBolton

I think your best bet is the World of Darkness system. Its the only thing that can really do what you want as far as i know. D20 is just not set up that way. Or maybe 4th ed for D&D if you want to cheapen yourself (apologies to all the 4e players but i just cant stand that edition)

Also I posted a lot of useful things on your original question if you would like to check those out.

-Jaymes

"Changing History":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/l5r-changing-history

RobertBenton

@JaymesBolton

You did and it was alot to take in. Especially Rifts, lol. I think I'm going to set up Feat Tree's and cut some of the more useless ones, then add class abilities, taking away from classes. I'll set it up as a prototype and edit it as I go along. If anyone is wanting me to post it or anything else, just let me know how and I'll keep you guys in the loop. I still haven't quite gotten the hang of OP yet, but I will.

HurstGM

I did create my own system for similar reasons. One i was bored and two I needed something more that I liked. It is alot of work but it is very rewarding once its done